This invention relates to an apparatus for treating waste-waters and sludges, and comprising an irradiation system providing accelerated charged particles for irradiating the sheet of polluted fluid placed in the path of these particles, the irradiation beams having to be as wide as possible with as high an energy level as possible in order to ensure efficient operation of the apparatus.
It is known that the waste-water and sludge treatment by means of ionising radiation gives a result of much better quality than that obtained by conventional chemical processes.
This ionising radiation may be formed by gamma rays produced by the disintegration of certain radioactive materials, such as coblat 60 for example, although in this case the cost of the treatment is high and the quantities in which these materials are available on a world-wide basis are relatively small by comparison with potential world demand. In addition, the problems give rise to numerous difficulties.
Conventional methods for waste-water treatment before use (upstream fluid) generally comprise:
a biological treatment by filtration on a bed of sand followed by the addition of chlorine,
a chemical treatment by flocculation with chemical additives, followed by ozonisation and/or the addition of chlorine.
Now, the increase in pollution is beginning to reduce the effectiveness of the biological membrane to well below acceptable limits, in addition to which the cost of the chemical additives which have to be used is increasing.
Also, it has been proposed to subject the waste-waters to sterilisation, this method of treatment is only valid in countries where water is scarce and energy inexpensive.
Conventional methods for treating waste-waters and sludges (downstream fluid) comprise separation of the liquid fraction and the solid material. The liquid fraction obtained is then chemically treated in the same way as indicated above, although the treatment of the sludges is at present very expensive (making up 50% of the total cost of treating the waste waters for a volume representing 1/200 of the total volume).
By using the apparatus for waste-water and sludge treatment according to the invention, it is possible to obtain extremely interesting results in regard to the quality and cost of the treatment.